


Celebrate You

by indevan



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Birthday, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Surprises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-04 17:57:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14598552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indevan/pseuds/indevan
Summary: Goten sank into the mattress.  This was actually happening.  His boyfriend actually forgot his birthday





	Celebrate You

**Author's Note:**

> ok so 5/10 is goten day so you know i had to write one of my favorite boys a fic

Goten lived for his birthday.  When he was little and he knew the day was near, he used to wake up, race into the living room, and ask, “Is it my birthday yet?”  That was a story his mom would drag out during his adolescence to remind herself when he was her sweet boy and not a moody teenager.  Even as an adult, he loved his birthday. He liked having a day to himself. It wasn’t in a self-centered way but Goten often felt like his life wasn’t his own.  He was Goku’s son and Gohan’s brother. He wasn’t brainy and he wasn’t married (the fact that he was in a longterm relationship meant nothing to his mother who wanted him to adopt and/or wish her up more grandbabies), and he hadn’t helped save the world since he was a child.

But on his birthday, none of that mattered.  Every year, his mom would make him a strawberry and banana cake and everyone would sing to him.  Everyone would be happy that he was Goten.

This morning, he woke up and shook his boyfriend awake.  Trunks groaned and rolled onto his stomach. He grabbed the pillow and started to pull it over his head, but Goten was quicker.  He snatched it out of his hands and tossed it off the bed.

“Babe,” he moaned pitifully. “I’m sleeping.”

He buried his face, instead, in his folded arms.  Goten looked at him stretched out next to him, not for the first time amazed that he landed someone so hot.  Even his goal was forgotten as he looked at his lifelong best friend and longterm boyfriend lying shirtless on the bed.  He reached out and ghosted his hand over the knobs of his spine.

“Do you know what day it is?” he asked.

Trunks yawned and lifted his head.  He blinked at him blearily and yawned again.

“I wanna say Sunday, but I know I’m wrong.”

He dropped his head back down and, not for the first time, Goten wished that his boyfriend was a morning person.  When he would spend the night at Capsule Corp when they were children, he would be up and ready to go when no one else, not even Vegeta, was up.

“It’s February twenty-seventh,” Goten told him.

“Okay.  March soon.  Got it.”

Trunks rubbed his face into their top sheet and he wondered if he was being this obstinate on purpose.  There was no way that his boyfriend forgot his birthday, right?

“Trunks…”

“You have work today, don’t you?”

Goten was surprised by the sudden subject change.

“Uh, no.  I asked for today off.”

Granted, he was an ER nurse who could be called in at any time, but the hospital had granted him the day off for his birthday so he wasn’t  _ expected _ to come in.

“Oh.”

Trunks rolled onto his side and ground the heel of one hand into his eye.

“I have to go in,” he said hastily.

That sounded--fake.  Goten frowned.

“To CC?”

He nodded, yawning again. “Yeah.  I have to check on my experiments--make sure no one fucked anything up.  Should only be a few hours.”

Goten’s heart began to sank and he tried to ignore it.  Was Trunks honestly going into work  _ voluntarily _ on his birthday?  Trunks didn’t go into work when he  _ had _ to.  This was such a departure from last year when he told the department he oversaw to fuck off and stayed in bed with Goten for a full forty-eight hours.

“What?”

“Go visit your mom or something,” he said flippantly. “Or Pan.  Wait--I think she and Bra have rehearsal today.”

Right.  Trunks’s sister had roped his niece into trying out for the school play.  Goten pitied the drama director at their school.

“Are you really going in?”

Trunks rolled off of the bed and stretched, reaching both arms over his head.  This time, he didn’t have the time to be distracted by how his olive skin stretched over his muscles.  He was too busy being pissed.that not only did he forget his birthday but he was going into work. At a job he hated!

“Have to,” he said. “I have to show up at least once a month or they’ll sic my mom on me.”

“But today?”

He nodded and began walking to the bathroom.

“Yeah.  You reminded me that it’s almost the end of the month.  Gotta make sure the robotics and bio-engineering departments haven’t burned down.”

Goten sank into the mattress.  This was actually happening. His boyfriend actually forgot his birthday.  The one day where he got to just be Goten and have people be happy for that fact.

He waited for Trunks to jump out of the bathroom and say he was joking but all he heard was the sound of the shower being turned on.

\--

He wound up taking Trunks’s advice and visiting his parents.  His mother, at least, was happy to see him and celebrate him. She did the obligatory wailing that her baby was growing up and immediately swooped in with questions about when he and Trunks were getting married.

“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug and, this time, it was truthful.

After this morning, he felt ill at ease with his relationship.  He and Trunks knew everything about one another--always had. They were always together, even when they weren’t romantically together, and having him forget something so important to him and something that was such basic knowledge after all these years made him feel like shit.  Was Trunks losing interest and this was his way of letting him know?

He glumly picked at the food his mother made him, watching in vague disinterest as his father plowed through the majority of it.

“Sweetie, is something wrong?”

“Hmm?” He looked up at his mom’s concerned face. “No, I’m fine.  Just, uh, ready for cake.”

She hesitated and glanced towards his father.  He looked back--cheeks packed with too much food for him to even try and talk--and then her eyes landed on Goten again.

“Oh, I don’t have your cake,” she said after a moment.

“What?”

His mom  _ always _ made him cake.  Was she punishing him for not being married yet?  Was this all a cruel joke? Were she and Trunks in cahoots?

“Oh, I didn’t have time to make it,” she said, speaking quickly. “You know how it is.”

No, he didn’t know how it was.  His father started to say something and she hit him lightly on the shoulder with the back of her serving spoon.

“Goku, don’t talk with your mouth full.”

Goten slumped further in his chair, feeling more and more like a child.  Maybe he was past the age where birthday were supposed to be special, but.  They had always been good. The people around him had always celebrated him and made him feel good.  Now, he wasn’t sure. The cake itself wasn’t that big of a deal, really, but that combined with the fact that Trunks forgot it was his birthday  _ and _ ditched him just made things worse.  He wanted to say something but the phone rang and his mother went to answer it.

“Hello?” She raised her eyebrows at whoever was on the other line and turned her back towards the table as if that would stop Goten from being able to hear her. “No, that sounds about right.  Yes, just follow it. No, I can’t talk more. Bye.”

She hung up and Goten cocked a brow, wondering what it was all about.  He stared at his half-empty plates and sighed.

“Maybe I’ll go see what Pan is up to,” he grumbled.

\--

The play rehearsals were being held at the school auditorium, but no one stopped him from walking in.  He just had to say he was Pan’s uncle, show his license, and say he had something to give her. The scene on the stage was nothing short of bedlam.

“Get the fuck away from me or I’ll break your fingers!” Pan shouted.

She held her prop sword out like a real weapon, even though Goten knew from experience that she didn’t need it.  A boy held his hands up in surrender.

“Pan, please,” a beleaguered teacher said from his seat in the audience. “And, Jin, stop being inappropriate.  This is Shakespeare in Satan City, not Paprika Town.”

None of the assembled pre-teens seemed to get the reference (and, truthfully, neither did Goten) and all resumed glaring at each other.  Bra stood with her arms crossed, firmly on Pan’s side of the argument along with the other girls onstage. The boy--Jin--seemed outnumbered but didn’t seem to care.

“Why don’t we take five?” the teacher asked, exasperation tinging his words.

The seemed to end the fight and the girls all raced away from Jin.  Pan spotted him standing awkwardly in the aisle and jumped offstage.

“Uncle Goten!”

She rushed to hug him and he hugged her back.

“What are you doing here?”

Again, his stomach dropped.  Even Pan forgot?

“I thought you’d be celebrating with Uncle Trunks.”

He laughed hollowly, not sure how else to react.  Bra joined them, her brow knit in confusion as to why her brother wasn’t with him.

“He had to go into work,” he explained.

“Had to?” Bra laughed.

“Yeah,” he deadpanned. “So how’s the play going?”

“We’re going to kill the boy playing Malvolio,” Pan said gleefully.

He chewed his upper lip and nodded.

“So...good?”

Both girls nodded.

“We’re both leads!” Pan continued. “I dunno if dad told you but I’m Viola and Bra is Olivia!”

He hadn’t.  In fact, Goten hadn’t spoken to his brother in at least a week’s time.

“We’re supposed to be doing blocking but Jin keeps trying to grab at girls,” Bra said. “He’ll try and see which girls are wearing bras yet and, if they are, he’ll snap the backs.  So we’re going to kill him.”

“Seems only fair.”

“What are you doing tonight?” Pan asked.

She and Bra looked at one another and both began making kissy faces before breaking into a peal of giggles.  Goten rolled his eyes upwards. Was  _ he _ this annoying when he was twelve?

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I guess I’ll go home and find out.”

Their laughter died.

“No, wait!” Pan exclaimed. “Go by our house.  Dad has something to give you.”

Bra nodded emphatically in agreement.  Goten felt his brow crease. This was odd.  They maybe have gotten the leads in their school play, but they weren’t fantastic actors.  He could tell that they were hiding something.

“Why don’t I go by later?” he asked. “I’m just going home.”

In unison that rivaled his and Trunks’s when they were kids, both of them shook their heads.

“Nope.  Dad has an evening class to teach.  Better go now.”

“Yep.”

That was--suspicious, but what else was he going to do?  Go home to an empty apartment? Besides, if his brother had a birthday present for him, he kind of wanted to see what it was.

In the end, he decided that was the reason he would go see Gohan and not because he was convinced of it by two twelve-year-olds 

\--

His visit with his brother was a non-event.  All Gohan did was give him his present and ask how work was.  Goten trudged back home, feeling miserable. His birthday was a complete bust and it was barely even four o’clock.  He pressed the button for the elevator, too depressed to even take the stairs. Maybe he could call work and see if they needed him.

He slid his key into the lock and pushed the door open.

“Shit!”

He paused in the doorway.  That sounded like Trunks. Goten stepped fully inside and saw--it  _ was _ Trunks.  A Trunks who, judging by the black joggers and loose, gray crop top he was wearing, didn’t go into work today.  He stood in their little kitchen at the table where a cake was half-frosted.

“What’s this?” he asked.

He exhaled dramatically and put his hands on his hips.

“It was supposed to be a surprise, but you came home too early.”

“A surprise?”

His mood began to lift.

“Yeah.”

Trunks rubbed the back of his neck and gestured to the bowl of frosting next to the cake.

“You baked a cake?”

He nodded.

“It’s champagne and strawberry cake,” he said. “I wanted to be fancy.  I also wanted to put on nicer clothes but--”

Goten didn’t let him finish.  He rushed around the table to loop his arms around his neck and kiss him fiercely.  Trunks  _ didn’t _ forget his birthday!  He was trying to be romantic and surprise him by baking a cake (Trunks, who always had to fish frozen dinner instructions out of the trashcan halfway through preparation).

“I told your mom to make you one in case I messed up,” he said once they came up for air. “But she said that was too much cake.”

“No such thing.”

He grinned and pressed their foreheads together.

“That’s what I said but you know how your mom gets when I imply that I know you better than she does.”

Goten nodded and pressed his forehead in the slope of Trunks’s neck.  Part of him wanted to still be mad for him letting him believe that he had forgotten his birthday for so long, but he had always been terrible at holding a grudge.  What mattered was now.

“So strawberry and champagne?” he asked. “How fancy.”

Trunks nodded.

“Yeah.  Champagne cake, strawberry filling--which I made myself, by the way--and champagne frosting.”

“Fancy, fancy,” he repeated.

Goten stuck his finger in the bowl of frosting and tasted it.  It was sweet, but still tasted like champagne, which was astounding.

“So are we officially adults now that I have a fancy birthday cake instead of my usual strawberry and banana one?”

Trunks drew close, his hands resting on Goten’s waist.

“Well...I was hoping we could also celebrate.”

He cocked a brow. “As opposed to what we’re doing now?”

He exhaled and stamped his foot, looking every bit as bratty as he used to be growing up.

“Not like that.” Trunks compose himself, straightening his back and smoothing his hair down. “What I mean is…”

He felt at his pocket and then furrowed his brow.  He turned around in a circle and then cursed under his breath.

“Where is it?” he demanded.

Goten was beginning to feel lost again.

“Where’s what?”

“Nothing!”

It certainly didn’t  _ seem _ like nothing.  Goten looked around the kitchen and spotted something on the counter.  It was a small, black box.

“Is that it?”

Trunks whirled around again and all but leapt on the box.  He turned back and presented it in his open hand. Goten took it and opened it on its hinge.  Inside was a silver band.

“Aw,” he said. “Sweet ring.”

He wasn’t really a jewelry person (neither was Trunks after a brief foiree with a lip piercing in their adolescence) so he wasn’t sure why he got him this as a present.

“Goten.”

He looked up to see Trunks staring at him in that weirdly intense way of his.  He looked from him to the ring.

“What?”

_ “Goten.” _

It clicked into place and he started.

“Oh--OH!  Oh, oh, oh.”

This was--he was--they were.  Goten stared at the ring and cupped his hand over his mouth.  The day had started out so rotten and now here he was with an unfairly fancy birthday cake and an engagement ring staring him in the eye.

“So, is that a yes?”

He nodded.  Dropped his hand.

“Yes!”

He kissed him again, holding Trunks against him.  He broke the kiss and let Trunks nuzzle the tips of their noses together.

“Hey,” he said in a throaty voice. “Good birthday?”

He grinned.

“The best.”

**Author's Note:**

> vertigoats.tumblr.com


End file.
